Theresa May sets up Downing Street committee to boost female entrepreneurship after Telegraph campaign

Theresa May has set up a Downing Street committee to boost the number of women starting businesses just weeks after the Telegraph launched a campaign to help female entrepreneurs.

The task force, which will meet every two weeks, will ensure all policy developed by the Government considers the impact on women and focuses on increasing their role in politics, business and society as a whole. 

It comes just weeks after the launch of a Telegraph campaign to champion women in business and tackle the unfairness of startup funding between the two genders. 

The committee of peers, MPs and policy experts will focus on a set of key goals and will also look at how to end violence against women and girls in the UK and around the world. 

Members will be free to suggest new ideas for ministers to consider and a number have already been discussed, including regional hubs to encourage women to start up companies and plans to help employees who left work, return to their careers. 

It came as Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the CEO of Virgin Money and the author of the Treasury's Women in Finance Charter, said all new businesses should be set up with "50:50 gender equality  throughout the  organisation."

Speaking at the Treasury's International FinTech conference, the bank boss described feeling "intimidated" and “patronised” at male-dominated industry events, even as the CEO of a bank herself.

Ms Gadhia said the City is "far, far worse than any other industry  at achieving progression of women to senior levels."

Matt Hancock, the culture minister, was in the audience for the speech and nodded throughout. 

He said: “Gender diversity is absolutely critical, you cannot secure all the talent we need if we only fish in half the pond."

The Prime Minister has long been a champion of women and set up the Women to Win group of young female Conservatives to help increase their number in Parliament. 

Her new committee is understood to be a top priority for the Government and the Prime Minister particularly. It will build up a picture of women’s lives in all aspects of society and seek to focus minds on which policy issues will make the biggest difference. 

The first meeting of the group took place earlier this week where the objectives were agreed. It is chaired by Nikki Da Costa, the head of legislative affairs at Number 10.

Baroness Anne Jenkin, a strident campaigner on female participation in politics, said the group aims to make sure decisions affecting women are carefully considered and the response to issues, particularly things like domestic violence, are joined up. 

Baroness Bertin, David Cameron’s former aide, businesswoman Baroness Manzoor, and female Tory MPs Gillian Keegan, Maria Caulfield, Michelle Donelan and Kirstene Hair also attended the first meeting. 

The group will try to address gaps between departments where policy developed by housing experts may miss concerns held by those in the Home Office or Justice. 

Craig Tracey MP, another member of the group with a keen interest in female entrepreneurship, told The Telegraph: “I was really pleased to be invited to be part of this new team. 

“It is a great platform for me to get directly in to the heart of Government some of the excellent work and findings the all-party group members are producing around female entrepreneurship & women in business.

“This is a really positive step by Government which has been warmly welcomed by my group" 

He chairs an influential group of MPs campaigning to encourage more women to start their own businesses and highlighted the need for regional women’s business hubs in the UK, a model used in America where women are setting up businesses at twice the rate of men.

Mr Tracey also called for better access to data on the number of female entrepreneurs, and better financial awareness among women to help break down some of the barriers involved in setting up a company. 

Confidence building sessions, mentoring schemes and targeted education campaigns were also discussed. 

Earlier this month the Prime Minister backed the Treasury’s women in finance charter which commits signatories to increase training schemes to ensure young women are promoted into senior roles and do not leave the company.

The new group will also look to tackle the issue of women who leave work to have children and struggle to return, amid claims there is an untapped pool of talent which could boost the British economy by millions if women were helped to return to work.

It comes as businesses around the country prepare to face up to their gender pay gap, as the deadline for declaring the difference between the pay of women and men approaches. 

To have your say and support the campaign, use #WomenMeanBusiness on social media or download the open letter via the button below and send it to your MP.

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